


That’s Good, Isn’t It?

by bubbleteatasteslikehappiness



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson, Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson (Broadway Cast) Actor RPF
Genre: Abusive Parent, Angst with a Happy Ending, Child Abuse, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay, M/M, One Shot, Post-Canon, Pure, gay relationship, hand-holding, i don’t know how to write abusive parents, two bros chilling in a forest sitting right next to each other bc they’re super gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 01:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19757701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubbleteatasteslikehappiness/pseuds/bubbleteatasteslikehappiness
Summary: Jared runs into a forest to make an escape from his abusive mom and encounters Evan in the forest.





	That’s Good, Isn’t It?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [certifiedrecycling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/certifiedrecycling/gifts).



Jared’s POV  
I recognized the familiar furious rhythm of my mother walking up the stairs, and the click of the knob of my door. No, no, no, not again. Not this. My mom swung the door open with full force of both her arms. “YOU BASTARD!” She pointed a stiff accusing finger at me. I instinctively moved away from her, scooting further up the bed. I avoided eye contact. I felt my body heat and a bead of sweat trickle down the back of my neck. She stomped her way over to my bed and stood right in front of me, where I had my legs hanging over the edge of the bed and my phone in my lap. She grabbed me with by the neck with both hands and gripped tightly onto it with her sharp red nails. They felt like knives, slowly sinking into my skin. “You thought you could invite your father TO MY HOUSE,” her hands tightened, “because it was your BIRTHDAY?” She hissed, like the snake bitch she is. I knew it was a question, but I didn’t answer, and I can’t really (not with her fancily pedicured nails stabbing me in the neck). All I could be thinking about was how to get out before I passed out because who knows what she’ll do with my unconscious fucking body. Probably throw me into a fire, best case scenario. “ANSWER ME!” She shouted, spit flying in my face, I squeezed my eyes shut. “I-” Was all I could get out, before she threw me at the mirror on the wall by my neck, like I was a ragdoll. The glass shattered into thousands of triangular pieces that scattered on the carpeted floor. I laid on the floor sideways, too exhausted to move, the sharp sting of the glass shards in my skin just beginning to settle in. My phone was on the floor right in front of my face, I reached for it before it was picked up by her hand. She stood above me, glaring down at me like a piece of trash and whipped the phone at my chest. My breath hitched, if I didn’t have breath from her choking me for a minute, I sure didn’t have it now. I took unsteady heavy inhales and no exhales, in-between each inhale was a dry cough. I need to get out, I need to escape right now. I saw the door and my adrenaline just shoved me to my feet and I ran. 

I don’t know where the fuck I am. I put my back against the tree and slowly slid down, and sat on the grads. It was somewhere I knew she wouldn’t find me, I was safe. I was alone, and she wouldn’t hurt me. I was okay. I stared up at the black sky, it was sprinkled with bright white stars. I was sitting in a clearing that was in the middle of a crowded forest. The clearing was a blank slate other than one large oak tree in the middle. I’m not that type of person to say things are ‘beautiful’, and I never will be that type of person ew, but looking around me it is... something to appreciate at the least. I fold my legs and rest my chin in my knees. I pick up a stick and prod at the dirt with it. Well... this isn’t an ideal birthday. The inner-dumbass child inside me had said that there might’ve been a chance that mom and dad could become at least friends again, and that it might be a slim chance but if that were to succeed, it would be the best birthday ever. I’d be so happy. I stabbed the stick into the dirt. I was wrong. I leaned my head back into the rough bark of the tree. I chuckled darkly, “One hell of a birthday this is... isn’t it?” A twig snapping broke the silence. I jumped. A hand rested on my shoulder, I yelped and stood up (pain from being thrown around earlier shot through my legs), “DON’T. TOUCH ME.” I held my hands in front of me, and I realized, I was shaking. The silhouette in front of me jolted back, “I-I’m sorry sir, so so sorry I scared you; I really didn’t mean to. I would just like to point out that the park closed 3 hours ago.... kinda weird to be out here at 1 AM haha. Uh, not that I’m saying you’re- you’re uh wei-” Oh. I slapped my hand on my forehead, “Why, hello there, Evan Hand Sanitizer. Pleasant to see you also being ‘weird’ and in the middle of the forest at 1 AM.” It’s weird, but I feel soothed knowing it’s specifically Evan. “Oh.” Evan’s silhouette rustled around in his pockets and pulled out a flashlight, and with a click, he turned it on and pointed it at me. “Of course, it had to be you, in the middle of the forest at 1 AM.” He snorted. 

Evan clicked the flashlight off again, “...well. What are you doing here?...” I shrugged, and sat back down at the base of the tree, right next to Evan’s worn Ugg boots. “Ugg boots? Really? Can you get any more white? I’m surprised you’re a park ranger and not working at a Starbucks as we speak.” “Shut up.” Evan nudged my foot with his boot and sat down next to me cross-legged. “Anyway, are you gonna answer my question or?...” He asked, tilting his head. I flinched, thinking about the harsher more rough way my mom had asked me to answer her question, I brushed my fingertips over the cuts on my neck. I slowly centered myself in the moment again, I couldn’t show vulnerability, “Well, what are YOU doing here, Evan?” “I’m a park ranger, Jared....” “Ok well I don’t think there’s any night shifts for a park ranger’s job. What, does this forest have security? Make sure no one steals a leaf?” Evan huffed, and straightened his legs out. “Fine. Want the truth?” He turned his head to me, waiting for a response. I stared. He sighed, “I just wanted to look at the stars, okay? I... It’s dumb. I know, it’s childish and I should be spending my summer doing cool things that other kids our age do like.... smoking drugs-“ “Evan, we’ve talked about this; you don’t smoke dru-“ “Whatever you get what I mean.” He took the stick I was messing around with earlier and started mindlessly drawing circles in the dirt. “But... I get it.” I said quietly. Shit. I can’t do that. It’s a rule for me since day 1. Don’t show vulnerabilities to others, stay cold, you can’t risk having more people like your mom wandering around. “You.. you what?” Evan questioned. He gasped, “JARED, YOU SMOKE THE DRUGS???” I groan, “No, dumbass, I meant I get that you like the stars here or whatever. They look.... good.” Evan looked at the sky, and the stars shimmer and glitter in his light green eyes. “Well... good to know you’re capable of saying something nice every once ‘n a while.” He laughed. The corner of my lip twitched, I grinned. I like Evan’s laugh. I don’t know why, but his laugh is so much more sincere than everyone else’s. When he laughs, it’s honest. And it’s familiar, too. High school has been a mess. High school itself is already terrible for any person like me but ontop of that, Evan and I have had the whole Connor Project thing. We don’t talk about it. I try not to think about it, and I can tell he does, too. But, throughout everything, whether I liked it or not, Evan was there. Why? I don’t fucking know he’s just always nudging his way into my life. His presence feels more like ‘home’ than my real home ever did. I’m pretty sure we’ve known each other for way longer than it’s healthy. “So, are you gonna stop staring at me and actually explain why you’re in the middle of a forest that’s nowhere near a walking-distance of your house at 1 AM?” I could see him raise an eyebrow in the faint light. “Tsk, I was only staring because-“ Oh fuck, I can’t think of a witty comeback. “Um. I was looking at that pimple on your face, do you even moisturize?.. Geez.” “Yeah, I do moisturize and last time I checked I don’t have any acne.... c’mon Jared, you can’t keep ignoring the question, why are you here??” Wow, that was awfully straight-forward for someone like Evan. He’s not even wondering how sensitive of a question that is for me. But then, once again, I’m nothing more than a sarcastic boy who makes a sex joke every 12 minutes. “I-“ I paused. Should I really tell him? The first person I tell. Should it really be him? I think about everything he’s been through and everything we’ve been through. I think... I think he would understand. Okay.... I’m really doing this. “I.... you know how when I was late for the bus, and if I was, no one would drive me to school? And when I always had birthday parties at your house? And when my parents would never show up at any of our school events? Or how I joked around how I had bruises all over my skin and said that they were ‘hickies’ but I’ve never had a lover? And how you’ve never met my parents? Looking back, I’m surprised you didn’t figured out sooner enough that my mom beats me and that my dad lives hours away.” “Jared, I-“ “I’m not finished, you didn’t even let me get to why I came here. So, I invited my dad to my house today in the extremely stupid hope that my mom and dad would make up. Well, they didn’t. Shocker. And my mom choked me and then threw me into a mirror that shattered on impact. Fun. I ran here so that I wouldn’t, like, die, or some shit.” Silence. Not a word. “Jared, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”, broke the silence. Haha. It’s exactly what I thought he would say. Evan doesn’t understand. He doesn’t get that if I let him see who I am that he’ll have more reason to blame me, like my parents do. I don’t want to lose him, I don’t want him to be like them. I can’t let him know what I’m like. I can’t lose the only person who makes me feel safe. “I should get going.” I slowly stood up and looked at the forest surrounding us. ...I don’t even know where the hell to ‘get going’ to, is the truth. “Jared, wait-“ Evan grabbed my wrist. “STOP, I SAID DON’T. TOUCH ME.” I shouted and snatched my hand away from his grip. I took uneasy breaths in and out and held my wrist delicately with my other hand and stared at my wrist. It’s too late, he’s just like them.. I thought I would look up to see a face like my mothers, a face of disgust and disapproval. But instead, I saw tears streaming down his face. Actual tears, and there were so, so many of them; and it all seemed to scream of regret. They clung to his chin and slowly dripped to the grass. “I’m sorry.” Evan said, looking me dead in the eye. He turned on his heel ready to run but I softly said in my shaky voice, “No, please... don’t leave.” It was so quiet, that I heard a leaf drop to the forest floor. “Okay... I won’t.” Evan said, in an as equally hushed voice. “You’re not like them.” I muttered, and slowly, and ever so gently, I reached for the hand that was at his side and laced our fingers together. “You’re so, so different.” I smiled. “Well,” He said, and brushed his hand over the other hand at my side and waited to see if I retaliated. I didn’t. Evan took that hand and held it gingerly in his. He brought it up to his lips and ever so slightly kissed my hand. Holy fuck. “-That’s good news, isn’t it?”


End file.
